


Live Your Dream

by miraculouskatsukii



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, Gift Fic, M/M, Soulmates, Soulmates AU, pjosecretsanta fic, soulmates - timers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 10:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5623888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculouskatsukii/pseuds/miraculouskatsukii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Piper dreams is the night after her parents tell her about the strange numbers on her left wrist. <br/>“That clock will count down to the moment when you meet your soulmate,” they said. “Soulmates are two people with a very strong, special bond.”<br/>“What kind of bond?” she had asked. <br/>Her father and mother shared a secret smile. “You’ll see.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live Your Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I haven't ever written pipabeth before, so I hope you'll like this! :)

The first time Piper dreams is the night after her parents tell her about the strange numbers on her left wrist.   
“That clock will count down to the moment when you meet your soulmate,” they said. “Soulmates are two people with a very strong, special bond.”  
“What kind of bond?” she had asked.   
Her father and mother shared a secret smile. “You’ll see.”

§ § §

She dreams of grey eyes, which she finds extremely interesting. She knows kids with brown eyes and blue eyes – and even some with green eyes, like her best friend Percy – but she’s never seen grey, and she feels like a lot of other things about her soulmate will be interesting and new.   
She dreams of dazzling skyscrapers, winding roads, beautifully carved marble fountains, and angelic statues. The golden rays of the sunrise cover everything in a pale, warm light.   
The next morning, she wakes up and remembers her dream, which doesn’t usually happen, and feels as if it’s a sign from her soulmate – her soulmate who was maybe thinking of her, who maybe has had many other dreams like hers, about her, before. She wonders how her soulmate would have dreamed her – giant skate parks could never compete with the shining city from her dream.   
For a second in her dream, she had nearly felt her soulmate: felt their heartbeat, their warmth. The feeling had been strong, real, and for the first time since fourth grade – when she had had that sort-of crush on her classmate, Jason – Piper felt that odd mixture of butterflies in her stomach and dizziness that comes from having a crush.   
She has a crush – on someone she doesn’t even know – someone she would meet in six years, someone who had felt so tangible but can, for now, only be a figment of her imagination. 

§ § §

From that night on, Piper keeps on dreaming about her soulmate, but it isn’t simply about the golden city. She feels her, literally experiences her emotions; her frustrations, her successes. Piper feels it when her soulmate wins that running race in seventh grade, she’s there when she doesn’t finish her essay for Physics class, she’s there when her parents decide to get a divorce, she’s there when her soulmates’ nightmares come back again after her dad leaves her.   
(She decides that, when she and her soulmate get together, they’re never going to go meet their mom, or a she likes to call her: the momster.)  
She sometimes wonders how her soulmate reacts to what’s happening in her life. She might’ve laughed that time she woke up with a sharpie moustache drawn on her face, the night after her birthday-party-turned-sleepover. She might’ve felt the way it hurt when she twisted her ankle doing that cool new skateboard trick she had just learned. She could’ve known anything – from that time she had tried pot just to seem cool, to that time when her dog, Astro, had peed all over her new carpet. (Good times, good times…)   
Soulmates, Piper decides, are extremely special people. They see you at your best, and lowest, moments. They’re kind of like best friends – but not really because you wouldn’t want to make out with your best friend. There’s this connection that you have with them. You don’t always see them as being perfect – because let’s be serious, no one is – and even when they’re a complete mess, you still love them. 

That’s what true love must be like, Piper thinks. 

§ § §

When Piper’s fifteen, Percy meets his soulmate, and the story here gets a little weird.   
After fourth grade, Jason Grace – the kid she had a crush on – moves back to California, and in the middle of fifth grade, Percy Jackson moves into town. They immediately become best friends, and basically spend their childhood learning how to skateboard and listening to rock music. She doesn’t give Jason Grace a second thought, but maybe she should’ve, if she had known she would see him again.

“Hey, Piper right?” some tall, blonde guy taps her shoulder.  
Piper turns around slowly, looking at him and trying to figure out who he is. She feels like she recognizes him from somewhere and yet she can’t…  
“Jason, Jason Grace. We used to go to the same primary school,” he interrupts before she can say a word. Her eyes widen with surprise.  
“Jason! Yeah, oh my god, how are you? How did you even recognize me?” she exclaims.  
“All good, all good… and I knew it was you from your hair, you always braided it so intricately and I still remember you offering to braid my hair,” he laughs.  
Piper chuckles, “Oh yeah, I remember that. I was so sad when I figured out that your hair was too short.”  
Someone from behind them clears their throat, clearly telling them to move on, so Piper suggests, “Want to get coffee and quickly catch up?”  
“Luckily I’m free today, so yeah, definitely,” he smiles.   
They get on extremely well, even though it’s been four years since they last saw each other. Actually, they get on so well, that Piper decides to call Percy, to see if he’s awake and wants to go for a walk in the park with her and Jason.   
“Ah, you already leaving me, Piper? Found some hot, blonde-haired prince to take you away?” Percy jokes.  
“I know that you have a thing blondes Percy, if anything I’m doing this for you,” she says calmly smirking. She can nearly feel his blush through the phone.  
“Alright, alright I’m coming,” Percy grumbles.   
“Hurry up old man,” she laughs, before disconnecting the call.   
Jason looks at her, trying not to smile. “So, park?”

§ § §

Piper McLean can say with absolute certainty that the first emotion that both Percy and Jason had on their faces when they first saw each other was complete awe. No really:  
“I never knew I was gay.” Jason is the first to break the silence.   
“What a coincidence,” Piper laughs. “For the record, I called this. I knew it was going to happen.”  
“Well, I mean, I’ve known that I’m bisexual since 7th grade so I guess I should’ve anticipated this,” Percy smiles. “Wonder what mom’s going to say?”  
“Oh shut up you dork, she’ll love Jason,” Piper says. “Now come on, your soulmate-y-ness isn’t going to ruin my day in the park,” and she pulls them both away from staring at each other.   
Percy spends more time teaching Jason everything he knows about skateboards than actually skateboarding alongside her, but Piper still counts that day as a success. 

§ § §

Piper realizes that she only has two minutes left on her timer the one warm day, the summer after tenth grade. She’s just entered the coffee shop, and as she looks down to make sure she doesn’t trip over the entrance mat as she usually does, she sees the number on her wrist:   
02min 31s.  
She doesn’t get shocked, as she’s seen other people do. She doesn’t jump up and down, or squeal with joy, she just feels really, really calm. (Ok, also little bit nervous but anyone would be nervous before meeting their own soulmate). It doesn’t matter anymore, does it? It’s too late anyway; she can’t run away from this now. All she’s got to do is just walk up to the counter and hope that he – or she – bumps into her. She actually wants it over as fast as she can; like ripping off a band-aid.   
The following two minutes are brutal. Percy and Jason are behind her, joking about some youtuber gamer, and in front of her is an extremely jittery man. His eyes keep glancing to the door of the coffee shop. Just when there are 29 more seconds to wait for her soulmate, the nervous man in line in front of her jumps up suddenly:  
“Wait, no!” he yells, running outside. Piper doesn’t keep track of what he’s running after because she is suddenly met with the enchantingly beautiful presence that is the barista.  
Piper has always kept track of the baristas in this café – she really likes Clarisse because she scares Percy, and Mrs. Blackwood who always gives her free refills – but she has never, ever, seen this one.   
Her golden hair is pulled in a high ponytail, but it still gleams golden in the sunlight filtering through the window. She’s tall – taller than her, for sure – and has the most striking steel-grey eyes.   
“Hi, what can I get you?” she smiles.  
“I-um-” Piper stumbles over her words. “Can I have a caramel frappuccino please?”  
“Sure,” she says, turning around. “Name?”  
“Um-I just… Piper; my name’s Piper,” she said, cursing her blushing cheeks. What was happening to her? She was going to meet her soulmate soon. She quickly got out of the line, and went to get a table, looking down at her wrist.

~ You have found your soulmate! ~

She stopped dead.   
But… she’d still had 29 more seconds.   
She turned around, looking at all the people in the coffee shop, searching for someone who was also looking around for their soulmate, but everybody was simply minding their own business. What had happened?   
“So it seems I’m not the only one with a thing for blondes, huh Piper? I saw the way you were looking at the new barista,” Percy said jokingly as he and Jason joined her.   
“Hey, everything okay?” Jason asked, seeing her face.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, let’s find a seat,” Piper lied, smiling.   
Everything was fine. There was just something wrong with her timer – she would wake up tomorrow and it would say 05hrs 23mins 49s again.  
Everything would be fine. 

§ § §

Everything was not fine.  
Her timer never reset itself, it just stayed that way, all the way through high school. After a while she got tired of seeing the stupid words staring back at her, so she just ended up sticking a band-aid on it and trying to forget about it.  
She still got the dreams every night, though. She could tell that her soulmate had been really frustrated and on edge lately, and she couldn’t blame them. Piper wished she could send them some sort of message: I’m sorry but my timer isn’t working anymore I won’t ever know if I meet you.   
She really wished she could find someone who could fix her timer but every fortune teller or psychic she ever visited all couldn’t figure out what had happened to her timer and that left only one explanation: that she had already met her soulmate.  
But that was impossible, right? She’d had half a minute to find her soulmate but she hadn’t met anyone new in that time.   
This soulmate thing is really not cool, Piper decides. 

§ § § 

Piper didn’t realize just how lonely she was going to be until she got to college. Everyone she knew was going to be moving into apartments out in the city with their soulmates, and she was left to try and find a roommate.   
She ended up having to sleep in the dorms at her college, but those were full of other kids who hadn’t met their soulmate yet, which meant that they were way older. She hoped she wouldn’t have to room with some freakish 20-something grouch. 

§ § §

“Hey, I’m Annabeth, your new roommate,” the girl in front of her smiled.  
“Piper,” she answered, blushing.   
Annabeth cocked her head to the side. “I know you.”  
“You-you do?”  
“Yeah! I served you coffee once. I remember because you were the one with the nicest name,” Annabeth laughs. “I had this thing where I rated everyone based on their name, and you had the best name.”  
“I’ll tell me grandfather thanks then,” Piper laughs. “He named me Piper because apparently, I had good, strong, lungs as a baby and he wanted me to learn all of the traditional Cherokee songs.”  
“And then there’s me who’s named Annabeth because my parents couldn’t decide which name they wanted – Anna or Bethany,” she laughed.   
“Right, ok you’re a cool person,” Piper sighed.  
“What?  
“I thought I would end up living with some freak because I mean – basically everyone is going to be living with their soulmate so I didn’t really know who I would be rooming with,’” she explains.   
“Nope, no freak. Just me,” Annabeth shrugs.   
“Just you,” Piper grins. 

Annabeth may be way out of her league, but Piper has a good feeling about her.

§ § §

As the months slowly go by, Piper realizes that she might be making a new best friend.   
She’ll never forget Percy, of course, but Annabeth and her have slowly become more and more close.  
Annabeth is usually quite serious and very smart, but she slowly shows her funny and sarcastic self. Piper could get used to her life right now: classes in the morning, and then catching up with some friends she’s made on campus to have lunch before heading back to her dorm to kick back and relax until Annabeth gets home and makes her study and work – but she doesn’t mind it, really. 

§ § §

It’s in one of these study sessions that Piper realizes she might really like Annabeth.   
The soft scratching of Annabeth’s pencil on her sketching paper is the only sound that can be heard, the late afternoon sunlight gives the room a warm atmosphere and Piper finds everything really calming and relaxing and wishes she could spend every day like this.  
She stops, because Piper isn’t one to think about these kinds of things – settling down with someone and other stuff.   
But this time she wants it –feels it as a sort of faint ache deep in her chest – she wants Annabeth. She’s wanted her ever since she first met her in the coffee shop.  
Her cheeks flush, and she not so discretely glances at Annabeth.   
Maybe she was her soulmate. Piper had never thought about that. But the timing hadn’t been right, had it? She’d still had about fifteen seconds left when she had met Annabeth.   
She shouldn’t think about this. Thinking about her non-existent soulmate is always a sure-fire way to turn her into a small heap of sadness.   
Just don’t think about it, she chastises herself. 

She thinks about it.  
A lot. 

§ § §

Knock. Knock. Knock.  
Piper slowly opens her eyes, trying to figure out who woke her up with the loud knocking.   
Knock. Knock. Knock.  
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she mumbled, getting out of bed.  
She did not, at all, expect what she saw.  
“Heeeeeeeeey Pipes, sorry I f-hic-forgot my keys, hee hee,” Annabeth slurred. 

Annabeth actually going out and getting drunk, especially without her, was a rare sight. Actually, this is probably the first time that Annabeth has ever gone out to a bar, alone.   
“Oh my god, Annabeth what are you doing out this late all alone? Get inside quick. Are you gonna throw up on me?” Piper demanded. She quickly slid her arm around Annabeth, to help her get inside. 

(She absolutely did not think about how close they were, she did not think about how warm and amazing Annabeth felt pressed up against her.   
You have no proof.)

“I know you have a really important test tomorrow,” Annabeth breathed.  
“Don’t worry about my tests,” Piper told her. “Let’s get you to bed.”  
Piper rushed around after she let Annabeth flop into her bed, getting a spare bucket they had in the bathroom and a glass of water, as well as some painkillers to help Annabeth tomorrow morning.   
“Piiiiiiiiiperrrrrr,” Annabeth whined.   
“What?” Piper smiled. Whenever she got drunk, which wasn’t often, Annabeth turned into a hyper five-year-old. She cherished these moments when Annabeth just had fun and laughed at basically anything.   
“I think you’re my soulmate,” Annabeth whispered. Piper tensed up  
“Annabeth I don’t…” she didn’t finish her answer.   
“I spoke to old Tina,” Annabeth insisted.  
Old Tina was the local fortune-teller. Piper had visited her once before, but she had given her the same answer as all the others: that piper had already met her soulmate.   
“And?” Piper said, just to humour drunk-Annabeth.   
“I told her every little detail and she told me really interesting things,” Annabeth continued. “She said that no one can ever really be sure of what the future will be – not even the timers – so I thought that maybe that guy who-who had jumped up and left was one of tho-hic-those things that fate didn’t see or something.”  
“But how do you know that my timer isn’t still counting down for someone else?” Piper asked, trying to deny what was going on. She had never really thought about the idea of Annabeth being her soulmate because, well. It was too good to be true, really.   
“I also may have spoken to Percy and Jason,” Annabeth giggled. “They kind of figured out what had happened that day at the coffee shop and, yeah. You’re my soulmate.”  
“Why did you go out to drink then?”  
“Because,” Annabeth hiccupped, “I needed to understand it for myself. Although, getting drunk was a bad idea.”  
“You don’t say,” Piper hummed fondly.   
“I’ve liked you for like, forever.”  
“Forever?”  
“Yeah, forever. And it’s like, I want you to be my soulmate. A lot.”  
“Yeah me too,” Piper smiled. “But you better remember this in the morning okay?”  
“Okay,” Annabeth yawned. “Love you.”  
“Love you too,” Piper said in a pained whisper. She grinned so big, her face hurt.  
This soulmate thing is really cool, she decided, chuckling, remembering what she had thought of soulmates in high school.

§ § §

“Don’t,” Annabeth warns, the morning after. “Just don’t. I have the worst headache ever. I will literally throw up on you if you even mention-”  
“No, no I really liked it. I kind of want to be your soulmate, and now it’s too late; you’ve said your vows and I’ve said mine, we’re in this together,” Piper smiled slowly at Annabeth, telling her that yes this is it, she wants it.   
“Oh,” Annabeth says slowly. “Oh. Then, I mean-you wouldn’t mind if I… I just have really wanted to do this for such a long time and-”  
Piper interrupts her by pulling her in for a kiss, which, really she should’ve prepared herself for.  
Annabeth tastes like vanilla and lemons and Sunday mornings and like everything wonderful that has ever happened, ever. Piper could do this forever, she could just stay in this moment, and hope that time will never move on. She can feel a small ball of warmth unfurl in her chest; and she just feels so fond of Annabeth and her little quirks and even that annoying neighbor she had and just – everything basically.   
Unfortunately, she soon finds out that humans do actually need oxygen to survive, and so she slowly pulls back to take huge gulps of air.   
“That was…” Annabeth trails off before bursting into laughter.   
“Hey! Why are you laughing like that after such a phenomenal kiss?” Piper whines. She does feel the slightest bit resentful that Annabeth isn’t as winded out as she is.   
“Sorry, no the kiss was great, absolutely miraculous actually, but like…” Annabeth pauses, giggling. “That was so cliché! Y’know, cutting me off with a kiss.”  
“Yeah it kind of was,” Piper huffs out a laugh. “So we’re soulmates, right?”   
“Soulmates.”

§ § §

That night had been the last night Piper had ever dreamed because, well. What did she need dreams for if she was already living her dream? 

(Or rather, living with her dream…)


End file.
